PARIS -- For two weeks now, there has been a casual consensus among the women's players here at Roland Garros: If Serena Williams plays her best, no one -- not even the second coming of Suzanne Lenglen -- can beat her.

	Clay has always been the most difficult surface for Serena Williams to win on.

For 33 consecutive singles matches, in the oppressive crucible of a Grand Slam tournament, going all the way back to her French Open title a year ago, Williams kept her eye on the ball. She won every time. Even when she was not her best, or even something less, she managed to prevail.

On Thursday, however, that streak became a part of history. And while it will be widely written that Williams was not her ethereal self, that does not do justice to Justine Henin-Hardenne. It was the ferociously determined, teeth-clenching, fist pumping little Belgian who helped stop Williams, not merely Williams herself.

The score was 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 on Court Philippe Chatrier as Henin-Hardenne took down the No. 1-ranked player in the world and ruined her opportunity to win a fifth consecutive Grand Slam.

Williams actually led 4-2, 30-love before Henin-Hardenne, the crowd ardently behind her, came charging back into the match, the best, she said, of her life.

"Probably the most beautiful," Henin-Hardenne, "This is new. I have beaten the strongest player in the world."

More than an hour after the match, Williams was still a broken spirit.

She looked dazed and broke down after the first question in the post-match interview. She wiped the tears from her eyes and struggled to control her emotions.

"I definitely wasn't nervous," Williams said. "I just didn't do what I needed to do. I probably needed to serve a little bit better and I wasn't able to do that."

Indeed, the No. 4 seed won Williams' last three service games and advanced to the Saturday final against good friend and fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters, the No. 2 seed. One of them will become a first-time Grand Slam singles champion.

The autopsy will reveal the clinical factors behind Williams' defeat.

Truth be told, clay is the surface least conducive to Williams' lethal forehand, her powerful serve. Certainly, the red clay blunted her strokes on Thursday, and her movement -- never completely natural and assured on the slippery dirt -- was awkward at times.

And, yes, the 15,000 spectators, already behind Henin-Hardenne at the start of the match and overwhelmingly against Williams by the end, made it more difficult to succeed.

"It was just a tough crowd out there today, really," Williams said. "Very tough. Story of my life."

But the thing that marked Williams' run was resolve. In the Grand Slams -- wherever the crowd's sentiments were -- there was a fearsome intensity, a higher consciousness, if you will. She played the big points bigger.

Henin-Hardenne applied just enough pressure that Williams failed to make those in-the-moment shots that had carried her previously. In the final set -- a ragged and nervous medley of missed shots and frayed nerves -- Williams allowed Henin-Hardenne back into points she should have finished.

At 5-all in the final set, after saving two break points, Williams held a critical game point. She had a routine forehand volley and most of an open court to go up 6-5, but instead of driving the ball she tightened and hit a lollipop -- her dropshots, she said later, were more like lobs -- that stayed up too long.

Henin-Hardenne hustled back into the point and won it with a forehand passing shot. When Williams inexplicably jerked a backhand wide, Henin-Hardenne found herself serving for the match.

Again, on Henin-Hardenne's first serve, Williams was in position to dictate the game. But she took it too easy on an overhead and Henin ran it down and hoisted a beautiful lob over a flat-footed Williams. Henin-Hardenne cranked off two impossibly big serves and when Williams stepped a little too hard into a backhand, the Belgian had won the match few thought she could.

"She was up 4-2, you know, I stayed very calm, very cool," Henin-Hardenne said. "I had nothing to lose at this point and I said, 'Just play point after point.' "

In the end, Williams slipped into an old habit; she tried to bash and slash her way out of trouble when patience would have been a virtue. She was credited with 75 unforced errors, compared to only 15 winners.

"I made a few too many unforced errors," Williams said. "I think we both know I didn't play a great match, a beautiful match. I just need to go home and get my serve together."

The last time these two players met, Henin-Hardenne beat Williams in straight sets, but that was a tournament in Charleston, S.C. Most observers believed that Williams, motivated by the muse of history, would raise the level of her game.

But it was Henin-Hardenne who came out furiously fast, winning the first three games. Williams looked oddly nervous and had her serve broken three times in the first set alone. Henin-Hardenne, the aggressor throughout, won the first frame with an emphatic ace down the middle.

It was only the ninth time Williams had lost a set this year. When she rallied in the second, showing better judgment and better chops, it looked like she would advance to the heavily anticipated final with Clijsters.

Williams got the upper hand in the third set, but three separate incidents turned the crowd completely against her. She got into it with the chair umpire, complaining about two line calls that, upon further review, she actually had right. The crowd, already leaning toward the underdog, booed, whistled and hissed. When Williams missed a subsequent first serve, they cheered -- seriously bad tennis etiquette.

There was another awkward moment when Henin raised her hand, essentially asking Williams to wait a moment before serving a second ball. William missed the sign and hit her first serve into the net. She assumed she would receive a fresh two serves. She assumed wrong because the chair umpire apparently missed Henin-Hardenne's gesture.

When the players met at net, Williams barely stopped for a handshake.

"She played very well today," Williams said. "She probably deserved to win. She was the better player today -- really."

Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.